As I first sat down to write this, I desperately tried to separate Jett the rock star, from Jett the ‘female’ rock star. Just look at the music by itself without the distraction of a person’s gender and ‘rock mythology’ getting in the way.

Couldn’t do it. The very first song on this record is “Cherry Bomb,” a tune about youth rebellion, underage girls and promiscuity all from the female viewpoint.

My opinion is that next to the Ramones, Joan Jett is the ‘coolest’ (not to be confused with ‘Best’ ‘Greatest’ or ‘Favourite’) rock star to have walked the earth. Gender is part of that package. When I was a skinny kid on my banana-seat bike she was belting out “Cherry Bomb” with the teenage Runaways appealing to both the stoner set and emerging punk scene. During my own adolescence as big hair metal was killing the airwaves, she was…